Gas prices are NEVER going down

The morons out there suck up the idea that the Iraq war, or frigging hurricane damage to Gulf oil rigs are responsible for the price of oil rising. It's all B.S. The true reason for the increase in the price of oil and why that price will not go down (and will almost certainly go up) is that China and India have economies running at 10 and

8% growth and THEY are consuming more and more oil. That's 2.2 billion people. Take a look at the price of steel over the past year, or other base metals and raw materials. This is all do to their consumption and it is just increasing. So put aside money to burn because you will need it.
Reply to
rander3127
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That's a good reason for it. The other reason is progfit. You'll see the price of oil drop 5-10% over the next 6-12 months. But you won't see gas prices drop that much. When the price of oil rose 10%, how much of a rise did you see in gas prices at the pump? It was more than 10% in my area. Pure profit for the oil companies, and they will never give that up.

Isn't that the truth.

Reply to
boB

Reply to
Wound Up

And how might this be a surprise????

Reply to
Jim Warman

Reply to
Michael Johnson, PE

I don't agree. The USA has been using a lot of oil for years and years BUT there was always enough of it. Now that we seem to be running into the last amounts of oil (that we know of) and demand is ever increasing, we are feeling the pinch. It's a simple supply and demand process. The price will continue to go up because we are running out of oil. It's a finite supply. Better start investing in horse and carriages :-) Remove NO-SPAM from email address when replying

Reply to
Rein

I think you missed some of Michaels thrust..... those of us lucky enough to live in North America have indulged our excesses for generations. Insulated and isolated from how life is on the other side of the fence, we paid passing notice to burgeoning energy costs. Now, as other countries are experiencing a move towards freedoms for their citizenry, we see that they are becoming trapped in our love affair with energy.

Unless I am very mistaken, current production levels are pretty close to the highest they've ever been......yet the demand still outstrips the supply. Taking a leap..... all of these large corporations (be they energy corporations, service corporations or goods corporations) are driven by shareholder desires. These shareholders desire more wealth and have little concern for what they will pass on to their grandchildren.

As Michael points out, there will come the day when we release our dependency on fossil fuels. Many of the technologies we will require are still in their infancy - others only need a couple of rate increases to become economically viable (that pesky shareholder thing again). Sadly, I see research into windmill farms and tidal electricity production but no research into what drawing vast amounts of energy from these resources may do in the future (oh no, he's about to hug a tree....). This planet would be just rockin' and rollin' if it weren't for us trying to change the way nature works. All of this WILL come at a price. Most of you youngsters haven't been around long enough to see the spiral. When Mrs. mechanic and I first married, we were buying a bakers dozen of bread loaves for a buck..... now I can't buy one loaf for that. When I was awarded my journeymans certificate in auto repair, I got a raise to nearly 4 bux an hour..... now I make well over $30/hr. I can assure you that my standard of living has NOT improved in the intervening years.

I digress...... I can foresee the day when a hot car at a stoplight will not say "BAPPA-DA-BAPPA-DA-BAAPA...." but will instead say "whoosh" or something even worse - .

I remain flabbergasted that anyone would find higher energy costs surprising. This is exactly the way we have designed our economic system and it is the way this system will work........ please notice that I didn't say it was a good economic system.

Reply to
Jim Warman

I question the actual necessity of switching when the oil companies are making record profits in the billions during this supposed "shortage".

Supply & demand isn't what's shafting us as much as oil company profiteering and the increasing taxation on gas by states like mine who tax a percantage of the price rather than a flat rate.

Reply to
vince garcia

it is the way this system will work........ please notice that I didn't say it was a good economic system.<

Did you have a plan for a BETTER system?

Jim

Reply to
Jim

now I can't buy one loaf for that<

I don't know anything about your personal situation, but I would be very surprised if your standard of living hadn't raised significantly in the last

10, 20 or 30 years.

Please go back and do some inflation adjustments. Even if you chose fuel which is a decreasing commodity.... In '70 it was what? .50 a gallon. In

35 years it is still under $2.00 a gallon. It's far cheaper now than it was. Your car now gets far better mileage and needs far less mainenance/mile and when adjusted for inflation its' cheaper, faster, more comfortable, air conditioned, easier to drive, safer and you probably have 2 or more of them... (Not to mention an RV )

Do the same with milk or bread and you will find the same. Try TV's, Refridgerators and microwaves and you will see that the prices have dropped

10 fold. (Even in REAL dollars) Everything you buy today is cheaper when adjusted for inflation and salaries in most every case have kept up.

Sorry guy but the "good ole' days" sucked. Everything is better today. We don't like these fast changes in gas prices, but they do come and go. And when prices get high enough more reserves and alternative enegy will start popping out of the wood work.

Free enterprise and technology work and I don't want it any other way.

Jim

Reply to
Jim

I agree

I believe that we are feeling the pinch for two reasons. 1) Demand has increased much more rapidly than supply (increased usage in a worldwide rising middle class). 2) Supply sources have slowly extricated themselves from the control of western oil companies and are able to better control supply as needed for political (Venezuela, Mexico, Russia, USA) or economic (Mideast and Africa) reasons.

I agree

Disagree. I don't think total supply is significantly limited at this time. Only available supply. As non oil producing economies start imploding due to the high cost of energy; available supplies may start to improve due to increased exploration and military/political pressure brought to bear on producing areas. Just as in WW2 it was very important to deny the enemy an economical energy supply to fuel their armies in today's economic warfare efforts will be made to limit supplies and raise costs to one's economic competitors. I personally don't believe that Western European or the US citizens have the necessary "fire in the belly" to sucessfully compete with Asia and South America over the next 50-100 years. We are too fat and happy. Perhaps our great great grandchildren will be cold and hungry enough to sucessfully compete.

We got a headstart on science and industrialization 200 years ago and have been unable or unwilling to institute the necessary policies and sacrifices to mainain that lead.

Cheers Howard

Reply to
Howard Nelson

If we start dictating to the oil companies then we get into that socialist/communist thing that I don't really care for and I doubt you would either. It's easy to jump on the oil companies for making too much profit instead of looking at what is the real culprit for the high prices. It is an ever increasing global demand for a resource that currently is in short supply. Since the economies of Chine and India (not to mention many others like Brazil etc.) are just in the beginning stages of their new oil devouring growth modes we are looking at just the tip of the oil demand iceberg. In the coming years it is going to get much worse.

Also, although the price of oil is at an all time high, it is not when inflation is considered. In the late 1980's oil was the equivalent of $80 a barrel in today's dollars. As the price of oil rises it becomes feasible to extract it from other places that until now was just too expensive to justify. This still is only a temporary fix for the demand problem.

IMO, the USA will be the first country to move away from a dependence on oil. We have the technological know-how and the free market economy to drive it. Personally, I hope I live to see it happen. It is our thirst for oil that has almost single handily caused the current war on terror. It is what has drawn us into the middle east. The day we don't need foreign oil is the day we won't need to fight wars in the Persian Gulf.

Sorry for getting off on a tangent but I got myself into rant mode and couldn't stop. :)

Reply to
Michael Johnson, PE

Of course they won't come down. I'd love to go back to the days when I paid 35 cents a gallen for premium and got a discount because I filled up the tank, and got full service, and got things like glassware, silverware, etc, and still got my S&H Green Stamps to save for something wonderful from the catalog. But those days are gone. And a good part is our own fault.

There are many factors involved in the rise in price. Not just big business gauging the public. Everything from the fact that oil is a finite commodity and the companies want to make their profit while they can, to rising labor costs, which people fail to realize are never paid by the company, but are always passed on to the consumer. There is speculation in the market; betting whether oil will even be available or a pipeline or well blown in the middle east (or even in Alaska) will reduce what is available. Competition from new markets in Europe and Asia. Ever growing populations of consumers demanding their share (a chicken in every pot and a gas guzzling SUV in every driveway!like my neighbor with his Hummer). The list goes on.

Where does it end? When the last drop of oil is pumped out of the ground? Take a look at what the projected date period is for the last of the available oil. It's like the Doomsday Clock; it has to be constantly re-adjusted. Probably long before then. When wars break out as a means of one power seeking to get a share of the dwindling supplies. Just as Japan struck out before and during WW2 when 100% of the fuel to power their system had to be imported just as it is today.

We are so divided that we can not stand up to the oil companies and say, enough is enough. As we always have in the past, we will find a way to pay whatever the price is at the pumps.

By the way, has anyone ever wondered what effect pulling al the oil out of the earth might have on things like tectonic plate movements, etc? Are we removing the very lubricant which keeps the earth "alive"?

Better dive those cars while we can before science fiction becomes science fact.

Entering into the unknown, V'ger seeks information used to maintain his Vintage Burgundy 1965 Ford Mustang 2+2 w/289 ci 4v oem A Code V8, C4 Trans,

16x8" Vintage 40 wheels, with BF Goodrich gForce T/A 225/50ZR16 tires, American Racing "Mustang" Centercaps, and a whole lot of other stuff; )
Reply to
V'ger

I wouldn't say we are running out if it. I think we just can't suck it out of the ground fast enough. There are enough known oil reserves to last for decades and technology will help us find more. The question is will recovering it be economically feasible. There will come a point when alternative fuels sources will be more affordable. Ultimately we will exhaust the supply but, IMO, that won't be for another 50-100 years at the earliest.

Reply to
Michael Johnson, PE

I was watching a special on television about people who have lived in three centuries (people over 100 years old) awhile back. I remember one old lady that was asked a question about the "good old days". She responded "What's good about going to the bathroom in an outhouse in the middle of winter at 2:00am?". She then went on to lecture the interviewer that she is currently living in the "good old days" relative to her life experiences.

Reply to
Michael Johnson, PE

"Michael Johnson, PE" wrote in news:DICdnZgR7afEWu snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

Bottom line is that we're all getting ripped off:

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Joe Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC

Reply to
Joe

This opinion is going to about as popular in here as a fart-tipped, bleacher- seat spoilered, neon-illuminated, rubberband-tired Honda, but here goes.

What we actually need is higher priced gas. We need to throw a heavy tax at it so people won't drive to a friend who only lives 4-5 houses down the street, or drive around their subdivision looking for their dog, or drive their kids to the bus stop that's only a few hundred yards away from the house, etc. The price has been so low there's never been any hesitation to consider the cost of gasoline, and think about walking, riding a bike or combining trips, before starting up the car.

From what I've been reading there's enough oil under the ground to last about another 100 years.

The biggest demand is us/U.S. The US has 5% of the world's population, but we use 25% of the world's oil. If our gasoline was taxed more heavily, our consumption would go down, and so would the price of gas.

Patrick '93 Cobra '83 LTD

Reply to
Patrick

Yep!

Nope, taxes would rise to keep it at the maximum sustainable price.

Howard

Reply to
Howard Nelson

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (Patrick) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

Consumption will not go down simply because the automobile is an integral part of the American way of life, not mention all the other non-automotive petroleum-based things like jet fuel and heating oil.

Prices will not come down simply because the oil companies will be taking more profits.

Joe Calypso Green '93 5.0 LX AOD hatch with a few goodies Black '03 Dakota 5.9 R/T CC

Reply to
Joe

One man's ripoff is another's justified profit. High profit margins aren't a luxury that only oil companies enjoy. There's many more that have the same or higher profits. I predict the oil companies will see the writing on the wall eventually and move to other energy sources or systems to market. If they don't they will decline. As a business owner I can say I don't condemn them for having a high profit margin. I try to make as much money as the market will bare too. To some degree we all (Mother Teresa types excluded) do the same by asking for raises or by taking higher paying jobs. After all, in the end this results in the price of something raising and is the basic driving force behind our economic system. :)

Reply to
Michael Johnson, PE

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